AudioBasket.com Broadcasts Ads

AudioBasket.com, a company that enables consumers to select their own streaming newscasts, thinks its new service has traditional radio beat for marketing.

Through the service, called the AudioBasket Unique Intelligent Advertising System, consumers can select topics or keywords on which they would like to receive news updates from sources, including ABCnews.com, CNN and the BBC.

To sign up, they must provide demographic information such as gender, age and ZIP code.

"Once we know who you are and what you listen to, we can send you the right commercial on the audio and through banner ads," said Thierry d'Allant, chief partnerships officer at AudioBasket, San Francisco.

The service segments consumers into 48 subgroups. It divides consumers by gender and age and then by the partner sites through which they signed up. It then takes into consideration what type of news the consumer is interested in: finance, technology, outdoor or family.

"Marketers can test different audio messages to these groups and then follow up with a focus group to get their opinions about the ad, or they can test direct response banner ads," d'Allant said. "This targeted communication can help them conceive the best marketing strategy for them."

AudioBasket can stream the news reports to personal digital assistants and MP3 players as well as a user's computer. The company plans to add cellular phones to the mix shortly.

The service is being distributed through America Online, CareerShop.com and BookSense.com. It will soon be available at Office.com as well.

The site came out of beta testing two weeks ago with its first two clients: NextCard and Sam Goody. It has received $21 million in funding from big-name companies such as Time Warner and Panasonic.